Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. Our good friends, the Youngs, came up from Yaounde to visit for a few days. They are missionaries with Jaars/Wycliff, Darrel is a pilot. We've missed them a lot since moving to Bamenda so it was great to get some quality time to catch up (our kids had a blast seeing their kids too). 

Thanksgiving Dinner with the Youngs. Also our good missionary friends the Dibbits were there (plus Simon). We all ate way too much!

We went for a picnic by a waterfall

Jake hiked to the top of the waterfall with the kids

The first term of Faith Bible College ends this week. We praise the Lord it has been a great semester. Registration starts this week for term two, please pray that we have good attendance; we are believing that we will see at least another 10 people join. We did hold a Pastor's breakfast to help promote it, it went very well.

Tim sharing at the Pastor's breakfast held at a restaurant in town

Also the last few weeks I have been busy painting my kitchen whenever I've had an evening free. We've been in this house over two years and the kitchen has been very neglected. It badly needed painting when we moved in! We also have started to make cabinets for it. We are making a section every month or so.

Sweeping the cobwebs down before painting the ceiling.

I chose a sunny yellow, it seems so bright in there now! And here is the first cabinet we made, Jake designed it. It is so nice not to have to bend down to get my plates and cups out anymore. And this is made out of solid Mahogany! I love living in Africa where this stuff is so easy to get.

I also celebrated my birthday last week, 31! It was a lot more easier than 30, that's for sure. One of my close missionary friends, Val Ham, made me a lovely cake and we all sat out in the garden and ate it so that was very special. I can't remember the last time I had a cake for my birthday. 

Val with my cake, yum!

Jo Jo helping me to blow the candles out

And of course I had to get one in of our little Jordan, who is now practically crawling! She is just ready to go!

I'm still alive!

I know it has been for-ev-er since I posted, as usual life has been crazy busy, but good busy. Here is a little update of the last few weeks.  We finished week twelve of school on Friday, we are a third of the way through already even though it seems like we just got started! It is going really well though and I'm even a little ahead on my read-a-louds, a miracle! We have a miniature zoo in our schoolroom right now as we are studying bugs in science. There are caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, and earthworms in jars all over the place, a boy's paradise!

All is going well at the children's home, I will blog about it more in the next week or two, but there are some changes coming up this month (good changes). We received three big boxes in the mail from the church Jake grew up in, First Baptist Church of Clarinda, Iowa. They were full of shirts and shoes for the kids, what a huge blessing! Their VBS helped bring them all in, it is wonderful to see how the children's home is continually being blessed, God is good. All the children did great on their mid-term exams. We also might be getting another orphaned girl this month, please keep that in your prayers.

Sandrine continues to improve and is really zipping around with her walker now. She is such a sweetie!

The new church plant is growing, I already have two helpers with the children's church,  they are doing awesome. I am starting to feel we are a team. It's great to be making so many more Cameroonian friends. I'm still helping with the praise and worship. Last week the leader called me on Saturday saying she wasn't well and if I could do it by myself. Praise the Lord is went well, even if my voice was almost gone at the end (there is no mic). The Lord is always stretching me (and I'm finally playing my guitar again)! 

There is a little bit of unrest in the air right now. The President, Paul Biya, will be visiting Bamenda at the end of the month. He has only visited here one other time, in '88, so it has been a while! We are in the English zone and there is always turmoil between them and the French zone. There are many people that do not particularly like the president here. So there is a 8 o'clock curfew in town, and they are taking anyone out past that time to jail for the night (and making them register to vote for the next elections!). The Bible school is having to close a lot earlier. There are a lot more police and soldiers out and about, so we alway make sure we have our paperwork with us. Never a dull moment on the mission field!

My folks are defiantly coming for Christmas, can't wait! They will be here for almost three weeks so it will be great. Of course they will be spending all their time ohhhing and ahhhing over Jordan :D. Jordan will be five months next week. She already has two teeth and is the most adorable little girl in the whole world! I just couldn't love her anymore! 

 The three big boxes that came

 Sakina and Tahirih in their new shoes and shirts

The kids looking very smart in their new clothes